Steel Products Prices North America

Steel Production Saw a 1.6 Percent Decrease Last Week

August 13, 2019

After a month of small increases, steel mill capacity utilization dipped last week to 80.2 percent. The mills have still kept production above the benchmark 80 percent level for the past five weeks, since the week ending July 6.

Raw steel production for the week ending Aug. 10 totaled 1,867,000 net tons, a decrease of 1.6 percent from the previous week when the U.S. mill utilization rate averaged 81.5 percent. Production was up by 0.3 percent compared with the same week last year when capacity utilization averaged 79.4 percent, reported the American Iron and Steel Institute.

Domestic steelmakers have produced 59,812,000 tons for the year to date, a 4.7 percent increase compared with the same period in 2018. Mill utilization has averaged 81.0 percent so far this year, up from 77.3 percent last year.

Following is production by district for the Aug. 10 week: North East: 202,000 net tons; Great Lakes, 694,000 net tons; Midwest, 198,000 net tons; South, 704,000 net tons; and West, 69,000 net tons, for a total of 1,867,000 tons. Production for the week decreased in all regions except for a small uptick in the South.

The raw steel production tonnage provided in this report is estimated. The figures are compiled from weekly production tonnage from 50 percent of the domestic producers combined with monthly production data for the remainder. Therefore, this report should be used primarily to assess production trends. The AISI monthly production report provides a more detailed summary of steel production based on data supplied by companies representing 75 percent of U.S. production capacity.

Note: Capability for third-quarter 2019 is approximately 30.6 million tons compared to 30.8 million tons for the same period last year and 30.3 million tons for second-quarter 2019.